Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • I'm Eric Armstrong and I'm the

  • Radiation safety program manager

  • I also serve as the University's

  • Radiaiton safety officer and laser safety officer

  • The largest program area within radiation safety

  • Is radioactive materials

  • This includes 50 principle investigators

  • 285 research staff and 233 locations

  • On the Iowa State University campus

  • Contamination monitoring is required

  • To maintain our license conditions

  • But makes good sense as a way to manage

  • Radiaiton exposure

  • Radiation workers are exposed to

  • Radiaiton and this can add to their

  • Lifetime cancer risk

  • By reducing radiation exposure through monitoring

  • We can imrpove the health of workers

  • Who rely on radioactive materials to complete their work

  • The radiation hazard of radioactive materials

  • Has the potential to impact areas beyond the lab

  • Material can migrate from containment

  • And once uncontained this material has the potential

  • To move outside the lab to public areas

  • To cars, and buses, even homes where it can expose the public

  • It should be the goal of all staff

  • Using radioactive material to ensure that radiation

  • Exposure is kept as low as possible

  • To themselves and the general public

  • One of the most important services the

  • Radiation safety group provides is

  • Radiation contamination and exposure monitoring

  • Monitoring is completed to evaluate and minimize

  • Risk from the use of radioactive material

  • Upon arriving to the lab

  • Monitoring is completed in two phases

  • The first phase involves a meter survey

  • To assess areas greater that background levels

  • And to assess and radiation exposure hazards

  • Meter selection is determined by the types of

  • Materials that are contained in the lab

  • And may require more than one type of meter

  • To go ahead and take the survey

  • The second monitoring phase includes

  • Collecting a series of smears to

  • Monitor for removable contamination

  • And to check for materials that can not

  • Be detected with portable instruments

  • Smear samples are collected from work areas

  • Equipment, enterences, and areas with

  • Potential loose material such as door handles

  • Faucets, and refridgerators

  • Once the lab survey is completed the smears are

  • Returned to EH&S for further analysis

  • Using proportional and liquid simulation counters

  • Through smear sampling the radioactivity of an area

  • Can be derived and analyzed for decontamination

  • Contamination monitoring improves the labs ability

  • To keep exposures as low as possible

  • While the workers reap the greatest benefits

  • From good monitoring practices, we are also

  • Protecting the public from the invisible hazard

I'm Eric Armstrong and I'm the

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it